Zeus
Zeus was the king of the Old Gods, worshiped by the Amazons, Ancient Greeks, and Ancient Romans (under the persona of Jupiter). He is the father of numerous children which includes the fearsome God of War, Ares, the Goddess of Hunt Artemis, as well as the heroic Wonder Woman. Biography Ruling the Gods Zeus ruled over Mount Olympus and his kin, the Old Gods, as the most powerful and eventually fathered Athena, Apollo, Artemis, and Ares, among other godly and demigodly children. Creating the Humans At some point afterward, Zeus proceeded to create humanity, making them in the Old Gods' likeness, imbuing his creation with many virtues. It was also said that Zeus cruelly punished the Titan Prometheus for enlightening humankind, as Lex Luthor would recall, millennia later. However, the accuracy of said myth is unclear . As Zeus' son Ares started corrupting humanity with violence, Zeus with the help of the other Old Gods promptly created a new race in response - the Amazons, a species of women blessed with immortality and superhuman attributes, who were intended to protect humanity from Ares' influence by spreading both love and compassion. Invasion of Earth 30,000 years before the modern day, Zeus would lead a coalition of humans, Amazons, Atlanteans, at least one Green Lantern, and his Old God children Ares and Artemis against the armies of the New God Steppenwolf. Zeus himself would blast apart the Unity with lightning, kill several Apokoliptian Priests, and blast back Steppenwolf himself with more subsequent lightning. Following this, the forces of humans, Amazons and Atlanteans divided the three Mother Boxes, and kept them contained for millennia. War of the Gods As Zeus was preparing to lead the Old Gods to the Amazons defense to free them from enslavement and stop humanity from destroying one another, Ares, who still viewed humanity with envious disgust, violently rebelled, proceeding to kill the Old Gods one-by-one for disagreeing with his bloodthirst and extremist ways. Zeus decided to father Diana (as a contingency weapon that could one day save humanity by defeating Ares once and for all) with Hippolyta instead of immediately participating in the war, anticipating the posibillity that he and the other Old Gods died in the War. After having fathered Diana, Zeus fearlessly engaged his malevolent son in combat and altough Ares's powers had greatly increased, he was able to defeat the God of War, banishing Ares from Olympus and griveously wounding him and leaving him badly weakened and much smaller, altough he sustained severe wounds in the battle. Knowing that Ares would recover and return to create an endless war, which would destroy both Mankind and the Amazon races, Zeus chose to sacrifice himself and with what remained of his power, Zeus created the protected island paradise Themyscira for the Amazons to live in safety, hidden from the God of War and the dangers of the world and Diana would be safe until the time came for her to defeat Ares. After all of this, the King of the Gods passed away from over-exerting his powers while already having sustained griveous wounds. Legacy To be added Personality Zeus is known to have been incredibly powerful, yet equally benevolent and just, as well as divinely wise, since he would create humanity in the Old Gods' likeness (imbuing them with many virtues), and when Ares sought to corrupt them, he created the Amazons to protect humanity (imbuing them with the ability to spread love, compassion, and a mutual understanding among all human nations) from him not killing Steppenwolf (even during the latter's Invasion of Earth) and later, simply driving back Ares during the War of the Gods, and banishing the God of War instead of killing his own son. This demonstrates Zeus' great love for his firstly created race, other beings, and his own family, as well as an extraordinary level of emotional intelligence and wisdom. Zeus' fearlessness, nobility, and foresight are on display both when Zeus personally fights and defeats Steppenwolf, and later when despite Ares managing to slay every other Old God in the War of the Gods, Zeus faced his malevolent son in combat without hesitation and drove him back, in order to buy himself enough time to father Diana and create the protective paradise of Themyscira, so that when Ares returns, humanity will still have a godly savior capable of stopping the fearsome God of War. And indeed, Wonder Woman as a superhero seeks to uphold her late father's virtues and ideology. If the myth mentioned by Lex Luthor (about Zeus cruelly punishing Prometheus) is true, then Zeus can be said to have a darker side, but given Wonder Woman's reaction of frustration and anger upon hearing the account, it is likely that the myth is actually inaccurate. Powers and Abilities Powers= *'Olympian Physiology:' As the King of the Old Gods, Zeus was a phenomenally powerful divine being, and the most powerful of all the Old Gods. Indeed, Zeus easily defeated and forced Steppenwolf into retreat millennia ago, and Ares was only able to face Zeus in combat when greatly enhanced by the violence of the War of the Gods, and yet Zeus still emerged victorious and forced him to flee, inflicting grievous wounds. Indeed, Lex Luthor used Zeus as one of the several examples used when describing the tremendous might of Superman, with Zeus being even more powerful than the ressurected Superman. **'Immortality:' As an Old God, Zeus is immortal, and has lived for millennia without visibly aging, with him far predating humanity and the Amazons, having created both of these races. Everything we learned from our WONDER WOMAN edit bay visit with Patty Jenkins (2017) Gal Gadot. **'Super Strength:' Zeus had a tremendous level of incalculable physical strength, the strongest of the Old Gods, surpassing that of resurrected Superman and a violence enhanced Ares, to the point that he was easily able to defeat and drive off Steppenwolf during the first Invasion of Earth, and later overpowered and severely wounded a violence-enhanced Ares during the War of the Gods. **'Life Creation:' Zeus was known to have created both the human and Amazonian races (imbuing both with their mindsets and abilities, notably the ability of the Amazons to speak every human language), the latter race in order to bring peace to humanity. Zeus also fathered Wonder Woman specifically as the Godkiller - a contingency weapon to be used to subdue Ares and the latter's warfare manipulation powers.. **'Realm Creation:' Right as the War of the Gods drew to a close, despite being mortally wounded and dying, Zeus was able to create the shielded island of Themyscira, in order to guarantee the Amazons protection from the outside world and from Ares. **'Divine Electrokinesis:' As the God of Thunder, Zeus was able to generate and control divine electricity to an unrivaled degree. Indeed, Zeus' lightning was so powerful that he forced Steppenwolf into retreat in the first Invasion of Earth, and grievously wounded Ares with a tremendous lighting blast to the torso in the War of the Gods (forcing the wounded God of War to retreat off Olympus). Zeus even easily pried apart the nearly fused Unity with a single lightning blast, a feat which visibly exhausted the combined effort of both Superman and Cyborg. **'Invulnerability:' As the King of the Old Gods, Zeus possess the highest level of invulnerabillity among them . While he could still be slain by other Old Gods, given as how the violence enhanced Ares was able to mortally wound him which combined from his over exerting his powers, eventually caused his demise, he was still extremely durable and resillient enough that he was able to withstand the violence enhanced Ares's power long enough to defeat him and retained enough power to give birth to Wonder Woman and create the shielded island of Themyscira before finally dying. st. **'Flight:' Zeus, as seen in Ares' War of the Gods illusion, could apparently fly, with his final battle with Ares occurring as both gods were suspended in the air on Olympus. **'Omnilingualism:' Zeus had the ability to fluently speak, read and understand all human languages, even currently dead ones. |-| Abilities= *'Genius-level Intellect:' Zeus was divinely wise and intelligent, given his tremendously long lifespan. His intelligence and wisdom surpassed all other Old Gods, even Ares. Indeed, he had an unparalleled level of emotional intelligence and wisdom, demonstrated by his ability to imbue many virtues into both his human and Amazonian creations. Zeus was also quite foresightful, given that prior to succumbing to his mortal wounds he ensured that the Amazons would survive Ares' return by creating the protected island of Themyscira and fathering Diana so that humanity would have another god powerful enough to defeat Ares and protect them. **'Expert Leader:' Zeus, having been King of Mount Olympus and chief of the Old Gods for many millennia, and was therefore an extremely skilled and capable leader. He also helped lead the Amazonian, Atlantean, human, and Green Lantern forces against Steppenwolf during the first Invasion of Earth to victory. *'Master Combatant:' Zeus was a phenomenally formidable, accomplished, and fierce combatant, with centuries of combat experience and training, in both armed and hand-to-hand combat as during the first Invasion of Earth, Zeus personally easily defeated and forced Steppenwolf into retreat, a feat that only the ressurected Superman and Ares was able to achieve, and during the War of the Gods, he even defeated the violence enhanced Ares in their duel, who had killed all the other Old Gods, grievously wounding and driving the God of War back off of Olympus, though Ares managed to badly wound Zeus in the process as well. |-| Weaknesses= *'Beings of Equal Power:' Zeus, only when fighting other beings of comparable power, mainly other gods (such as Steppenwolf, or Ares, when the latter was enhanced by violence), was more vulnerable, as they are powerful enough to injure and even kill Zeus, notably when Ares became empowered by the violence of the War of the Gods and was ultimately able to severely wound him, resulting in his death after he overused his powers to create Diana and Themyscira. Relationships Family *Old Gods **Ares † - son **Wonder Woman - daughter Allies *Humanity - creation *Amazons - creation **Hippolyta - lover *Atlanteans *Green Lantern Corps **Unidentified Green Lantern † Enemies *Ares † - killer *New Gods **Steppenwolf - defeated opponent **Apokoliptian Priests **Parademons Trivia *DCEU Zeus has several differences from his original Greek mythology counterpart - the original Zeus had not been the one to create humanity (Prometheus doing so instead), and the original Zeus had been far more narcissistic and cruel, in addition to being less wise, loving, and foresightful. *DCEU Zeus life and role with humanity are quite similar to the role of the biblical God for multiple reasons: **Zeus and God both created humanity, bestowed them with many virtues, and greatly loved them. **Zeus and God both defeated a former ally - and child - turned archnemesis (Ares and Lucifer), casting him out of the divine realm (Olympus and Heaven) for his rebellion and for envy of humanity. **When the ancient Greek Stoics referred to Zeus, they referred to him as the timeless, unmoved Prime Mover beyond space and time (the general complex concept of God) that Aristotle and Plato spoke of - who the Romans called Jupiter (or sometimes Deus) - rather than a robed, grey-bearded man as commonly depicted. *Jupiter, the fifth and largest planet of the Solar System, is named after Zeus' Roman name. *Thursday (Iovis Dies in Latin), in most Romance languages, is named after Zeus' Roman name as well. *In the DC Comics, the 'Z' from 'SHAZAM' is used to signify Zeus. References Category:Wonder Woman characters Category:Gods Category:Magic users Category:Deceased characters Category:Olympians Category:Heroes Category:Supporting characters